About Me

Six years into widowhood, after one year of incredible happiness and nearly 14 years of single blessedness. Have given up perfect manicures and pretty hands in order to resume playing the soprano recorder and to see if I can figure out how to play bluegrass banjo. Singing in the shower. Still really, *really* love to knit!

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Bills are all paid. Placed an order with Gudrun Sjoden including a pair of the shoes I tried on in New York. Tried and failed to register for the mega singles conference in Nauvoo this fall. Have sent an email asking what gives?

Slept like a rock for six hours last night, then up around 3:00 for a comfort break and back to sleep (eventually). Have followed through on the scrap of inspiration that I got while waiting to fall asleep again.

Gack! Just remembered that I need to do something about the music for Sunday. Vacation brain.

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

1. Notification from Amazon that volume 3 in The Trials of Apollo is almost ready to ship and should arrive around the first of May.

2. I checked the IRS website for status on my refund, and it said: "Your tax refund is scheduled to be sent to your bank by April 18, 2018. [I wasn't expecting it until May 1.] If your refund is not credited to your account by April 23, 2018, check with your bank to see if it has been received." So I logged into my bank, et voila!

3. I forgot what a beating the first day back at work is. I had over a hundred new emails waiting for me, about 20% of them wishing me a happy birthday. Regarding the stuff I am paid to do, I got all the way through my new attorney's mail and most of the way through SemperFi's.

4. My birthday gift from my sister was waiting on my desk when I got to work. It's a lovely painting of a single, huge, scarlet poppy. Her card was equally terrific. It shows the Cowardly Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow watching Dorothy pull money out of a machine and drop it into her basket. Tin Man says, "All this time, I thought she was calling for her 'Auntie Em'."

5. From SemperFi: "At our age you realize something very important." Inside: "Then *poof* it's gone and you can't remember what the hell you were just thinking about."

6. From my other, still to be nicknamed, attorney: "Happy Birthday" Inside, a handwritten note: "I hope you have a wonderful birthday! You deserve it! I am so happy that I get to work with you every day. You're such a joyful and kind person! I hope this year is full of blessings for you. (heart) J"

7. I stayed awake on the drive home, and I'm almost done eating dinner. It's doubtful that I can stay awake long enough to take my meds at the usual hour.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

NYC was a grand adventure. There I was, this little (old) girl from Idaho, driving in SoHo. And as I observed on Facebook, 20mph feels a whole lot faster in the Holland Tunnel than it does in a school zone.

I've found out which size of Gudrun's shoes I wear in the design I had hoped would fit me. Holding off on buying them until I get my tax refund in the next couple of weeks.

It's my birthday, and I've survived a truncated well woman (no diabetes-specific blood work, nor pelvic exam because of the hysteroscopy that followed). I was prepared for the latter to be as uncomfortable as the biopsy, and it wasn't. I got to see the little camera poking around. I am full of polyps. They are coming out mid-May and will be biopsied to make sure they aren't full of nasty surprises.

Meanwhile, I need to find somebody willing to drive me to Arlington, wait for me, and bring me home, as this isn't something I can drive myself to.

Really hoping that this takes care of things and that a hysterectomy will not be necessary.

It's been a great day. Breakfast at La Madeleine after the minimal blood work, and dinner at Lucile's in Fort Worth before driving to the new location (IKEA) for Knit Night.

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

It's not cancer, huzzah! We don't know what it is, so I will be having a hysteroscopy on my birthday, quelle joie.

In knitting news, I'm 20 rows along on my Cardi Cozy, and I need a Rosetta Stone to figure out the directions from here. Went to Ravelry, and the comments on various people's completed or frogged projects tell me I'm not alone. One of them stated that she emailed MDK and received a chart in her size. So I've just sent an email of my own.

I am supposed to be off tomorrow, the better to prepare for flying out at ridiculous o'clock on Friday. However, I was nowhere near caught up when I left my desk tonight, so I am going in tomorrow, putting my head down, and hoping/praying for the best.

That's all I've got for you. I stayed up way too late last night, filing my taxes among other things, and took my evening meds two hours after I normally would. Which meant that I woke up groggy and disoriented this morning, and I dragged until the half-bottle of Coke worked its magic. I do not want a repeat of that tomorrow morning. Night, y'all.

Wednesday, April 04, 2018

Middlest was already awake and had thoughtfully set out the dishes for my breakfast. I ate breakfast and played a few games on the AARP website to try to wake up my brain. Middlest played games on several game systems and phones at once. Multitasking. It's what we do.

I struggled to stay focused and awake for much of the day, but finally five o'clock rolled around. I came home by way of one of the Dallas yarn shops that stays open late on Wednesdays, and I cleft there with two HiyaHiya bamboo circs in the target sizes and two Chiagoo bamboo circs, to see if either brand has sufficient tooth to tame the KidSilk Haze without dragging at it. I'm hoping to save myself a trip to DFW FiberFest on Friday night.

You know I love my HiyaHiya minuscule steel needles for baby socks and doll clothes. I'm hoping that I like the bamboo needles every bit as well. If so, they come in 9" lengths for knitting sleeves in human-scale. And several of my friends like the Chiagoo. (I would like to score some rosewood needles and maybe even some ebony needles.)

I also bought a small ceramic sheep pin that reminds me of Shaun the Sheep. I'd snap a picture of all this bounty, but my phone has been sulking all day.

SemperFi stopped at my desk and asked if I had any word yet from yesterday. I told him it would be about a week and, "They're not Lenscrafters." ("Eyeglasses in about an hour.)

I'm torn between firing up one of the new needles and finishing the Rick Riordan book I started last night. Decisions, decisions.

Tuesday, April 03, 2018

I like this doctor. We should have the results of the biopsy in about a week. I have a provisional appointment for a hysteroscopy (like a colonoscopy, but meandering around in the girl bits) for two weeks from today. Which happens to be my birthday. When I'm already assuming the position that morning (well woman).

If the biopsy results are uh-oh (and he doesn't think they will be), then the hysteroscopy is cancelled, and he will refer me to a colleague who only does gynecological oncology and is very, very good at it.

After thoroughly palpating my ovaries and uterus, he said that he didn't feel anything that he's used to feeling when there is cancer.

I like the doctor. (I know. I said that already. I'm saying it again.) I adore his nurse and assistant. And I've stopped cramping, and there was only a little spotting, and I've skipped Knit Night, but I did have dinner with Fourthborn, and I bought two books and several boxes of note cards at Half Price Books.

I would estimate that I'm only about 0.5% scared and 99.5% hopeful at this point. Gonna go swatch some more on my Cardi Cozy.

Monday, April 02, 2018

That's what was waiting for me when I got home tonight. Also a LBD from Gudrun. Technically, it's a little black dress with grey and white daisies all over it, and I'm going to wear it to work tomorrow for good luck.

I'm glad that General Conference was this past weekend and that I was mostly too busy to think while at work today. I'm also going to be too busy to think tomorrow morning, before I leave for the "bubopsy." I'm hoping that the procedure is quick and painless, and that I'll feel like going to Knit Night tomorrow night. I have an unblocked Carbeth to show off. I've added another round to the current baby sock, and I've begun swatching for my Cardi Cozy in the discontinued color called "Blood."

Yes. Homeopathic knitting. It's a thing.

I would really like to eat a pint of Ben & Jerry's tonight, but I'm going to restrain myself and have some ginger cookies and a small handful of chocolate covered ginger. I had a priesthood blessing last night. I just want to know what's going on in my body and how to fix it. Oye with the poodles and the periods already!